Handle an Animal: This task involves commanding an animal to perform a task or trick that it knows. If the animal is wounded or has taken any nonlethal damage or ability score damage, the DC increases by two. If your check succeeds, the animal performs the task or trick on its next action.

*Push’ an Animal:_ To push an animal means to get it to perform a task or trick that it does not know but is physically capable of performing. This category also covers making an animal perform a forced march or forcing it to hustle for more than one hour between sleep cycles. If the animal is wounded or has taken any nonlethal damage or ability score damage, the DC increases by two. If your check succeeds, the animal performs the task or trick on its next action.

Teach an Animal a Trick: You can teach an animal a specific trick with one week of work and a successful Handle Animal check against the indicated DC. An animal with an Intelligence score of one can learn a maximum of three tricks, while an animal with an Intelligence score of two can learn a maximum of six tricks. Possible tricks and their associated DCs include but are not necessarily limited to:

Attack (DC 20): The animal attacks apparent enemies.

You may point to a particular creature that you wish the animal to attack and it will comply if able. Normally, an animal will attack only humanoids, monstrous humanoids, giants or other animals. Teaching an animal to attack all creatures, including such unnatural creatures as demons, counts as two tricks.

Come (DC 15): The animal comes to you, even if it normally would not do so.

Defend (DC 20): The animal defends you or is ready to defend you if no threat is currently present, even without any command being given. Alternatively, you can command the animal to defend a specific other character.

Down (DC 15): The animal breaks off from combat or otherwise backs down. An animal that does not know this trick continues to fight until it must flee (due to injury, a fear effect or the like) or its opponent is defeated.

Fetch (DC 15): The animal goes and gets something. If you do not point out a specific item, the animal fetches some random object.

Guard (DC 20): The animal stays in place and prevents others from approaching.

Heel (DC 15): The animal follows you closely, even to places where it normally would not go.

Perform (DC 15): The animal performs a variety of simple tricks, such as sitting up, rolling over, roaring, barking and so on.

Seek (DC 15): The animal moves into an area and looks around for anything that is obviously alive or animate.

Stay (DC 15): The animal stays in place, waiting for you to return. It does not challenge other creatures that come by, though it still defends itself if it needs to.

Track (DC 20): The animal tracks the scent presented to it. The animal must have the scent ability.

Work (DC 15): The animal pulls or pushes a medium or heavy load.

Train an Animal for a Purpose: Rather than teaching an animal individual tricks, you can simply train it for a general purpose. Essentially, an animal’s purpose represents a preselected set of known tricks that fit into a common scheme, such as guarding or heavy labour. The animal must meet all the normal prerequisites for all tricks included in the training package. If the package includes more than three tricks, the animal must have an Intelligence score of two.

An animal can be trained for only one general purpose, though if the creature is capable of learning additional tricks, it may do so. Training an animal for a purpose requires fewer checks than teaching individual tricks but takes the same amount of time.

Combat Riding (DC 20): An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks_ attack, come, defend, down, guard_ and_ heel._ Training an animal for combat riding takes six weeks. You may also ‘upgrade’ an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat riding by spending three weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal’s previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Warhorses are already trained to bear riders into combat and do not require any additional training for this purpose.

Rearing a Wild Animal: To rear an animal means to raise a wild creature from infancy so that it becomes domesticated. A handler can rear as many as three creatures of the same kind at once. A successfully domesticated animal can be taught tricks at the same time that it is being raised or it can be taught as a domesticated animal later.

Action: Handling an animal is a move action, while pushing an animal is a full-round action. For tasks with specific time frames, you must spend half this time (at the rate of three hours per day per animal being handled) working toward completion of the task before you attempt the Handle Animal check. If the check fails, your attempt to teach, rear or train the animal fails and you need not complete the teaching, rearing or training time. If the check succeeds, you must invest the remainder of the time to complete the teaching, rearing or training. If the time is interrupted or the task is not followed through to completion, the attempt to teach, rear or train the animal automatically fails.

Try Again: You may try again, except when you are rearing an animal.

Special: You can use this skill on a creature that is not an animal, so long as the creature has an Intelligence score of one or two. The DC of any such check increases by five. Such creatures have the same limit on known tricks as animals do.

If you have the Animal Affinity feat, you get a +2 bonus on Handle Animal checks.

Untrained: If you have no ranks in Handle Animal, you can use a Charisma check to handle and push domestic animals but you cannot teach, rear or train animals.